REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON OBSERVATORIES 77 



1 ,500 feet of the summit, the establishing of a station on San Miguel 

 seemed inadvisable. Of the higher mountains, Cuyamaca and Pal- 

 omar seemed to promise most, but in San Diego I was able to get 

 little definite information as to the latter. The impression prevailed 

 that it was very inaccessible. Moreover, Cuj^amaca was one of the 

 mountains suggested by your Commission as worthy of exploration, 

 and it has, besides, a daily mail stage from Lakeside to the Stone- 

 wall mine at Cuyamaca lake. The latter is at an elevation of about 

 4,500 feet, and there it seemed most expedient to make my first 

 camp. 



In San Diego I had received much valuable assistance from Mr. 

 Ford A. Carpenter, local forecast official of the United States Weather 

 Bureau. Through his interest I became acquainted with Mr. M. C. 

 Healion, president of the San Diego Flume Company. This com- 

 pany controls the water from Cuyamaca lake, and has a house 

 there. President Healion very kindly placed a room at my disposal, 

 and his foreman in charge proved a very helpful assistant. 



Cuyamaca is an Indian word, said to mean " cradle of the rains," 

 and here is the heaviest rainfall in southern California. The lake 

 is 2 miles long and less than i mile in width. The three Cuyamaca 

 peaks rise about it — South peak to 6,500 feet, and Middle and North 

 peaks to approximately 6,000 feet. Rattlesnake hill and a low 

 circle of chaparral- covered hills shut off the view of the Colorado 

 desert, whose first sentinel peak, just visible from the middle of 

 the lake, is barely 6 miles distant in an air line, for Cuyamaca drops 

 abruptly on the east. This nearness of the desert augured ill, and 

 indeed the pull between the great oven and the sea kept the winds 

 at work. The telescope was erected on the green slope at the base 

 of Middle peak, near the dam and the west shore of the lake. 



Grass is abundant here. Forests of oak rise back of the meadows, 

 and above them the fir, the cedar, and the pine, in turn. The sum- 

 mits are forbidding, and their ascent with horses is impracticable 

 unless road or trail has been cut. Up South peak such a road was 

 made a few years ago by the United States Geological Survey, and 

 that ascent is now easy. The view from this summit, supplemented 

 by constant reference to the topographical map prepared by the 

 United States Geological Sur\'ey, gave me an excellent idea of the 

 entire surrounding country. To the north lay Palomar, beyond 

 which rose the white cap of Old Baldy in the San Gabriel range, 

 iio miles away. Thence the San Bernardino and San Jacinto 

 mountains lead toward Cuyamaca and the connecting ranges that 



